#almondinus

[case-study-of-parenting]

aww my baby is having her first crush

Almond just casually asked me "guess who i'm in love with?" and then told it's a boy from her preschool. Unfortunately i don't know the boy at all. Not that it matters but i'm curious

[case-study-of-parenting]

the finnish word for ant is muurahainen

and the word for murder is murha

but my 3-y-old pronounces muurahainen as murhainen, which can be translated to "murdery"

[case-study-of-parenting]

Every time i go shopping with my mother-in-law she ends up paying for almost everything and i can't argue abt it. Today she bought probably 150€ worth stuff for our kids. Mostly clothes that we chose (and most of them were on discount) so that's fine but i'm still feeling uncomfortable. Which i shouldn't bc i'm sure she's happy to but them stuff, and the clothes were needed, and my personal financial situation is ... well exactly what you'd expect from a SAHM. So i should just get over with it.

Something funny from yesterday. We're away and Almond is sleeping next to me. As we were going to sleep I was full of love and feeling cuddly so i asked if she wanted to hold hands. To which she replied "why?". I explained that i just thought it would be nice to fall asleep holding hands. She turned her back to me and said "no, but you can scratch my back" 😂

[case-study-of-parenting]

the adventure that was Cinnamon's 5 month check-up

First of all I had Almond with me so she was stirring things up and secondly our usual nurse was on summer leave so we had another one and... let's say she was not my type.

Last week i noticed a lump in the back of Cinnamon's neck and asked the nurse to check that and seems it might be either a swollen lymph node or some kind of hematoma under the skin. Both apparently pretty common and possibly will disappear with time. Either way she recommended we see an actual doctor just to be sure but this did take the biggest stress off. I will be booking a pediatrician for the next week as it's not that urgent.

Then she asked about Cinnamon's sleeping and i just happened to mention how she often rolls over in her sleep and then wakes up bc of that. I wasn't complaining or looking for solutions, just in a "she's in that phase" way, but i think the nurse somewhat overreacted. She started giving me advise how i should let her sleep on her belly and that "babies that age will sleep anyhow once they're tired enough" and well... i'm pretty sure there are mothers who would be ready to fight anyone claiming that. and ofc i wouldn't be having this problem if she just continued sleeping on the belly but she doesn't bc she can't. she can only fall asleep on her back. and i'm sure this will pass once she's mastered her new skills bc that's what happened with Almond every time she was lerning new gross motor skills. Her advice might even be against official safe sleep recommendations. (anyway, tonight i tried if Cinnamon would fall asleep on her belly but she just kept playing and doing push ups until she got too frustrated and i had to "put her out" with milk.)

Almond behaved very much like a 4yo, not really disturbing anything but looking and touching everyting within her reach. And then i mentioned that next Cinnamon would get some vaccines and Almond got pretty serious and asked if she could wait in the hallway. And in the hallway she explained that she dislikes vaccines (needles) so much she doesn't even wanna see them. (Also i think she knew Cinnamon would cry and she didn't wanna hear that.) But I was really proud of Almond for setting that kind of boundary for something she knew would upset her and being able to put it in words so nicely. And when we were done i went to get her back and she wanted to see where the baby had the shot.*

*disclaimer: the clinic was very quiet, like one another family and a couple of nurses. and we left the door open so she was completely safe waiting in the hallway

The nurse asked for our midsummer plans and i told we'd be going to in-laws and she asked if we get along well. I found it a bit too off topic and there were some other things she also asked that felt weird. Towards the end she somehow got into talking about her own menopause and at that point i was so ready to leave...

[case-study-of-parenting]

Almond's health issue is now under control and she has medication for at least over summer. I feel like a huge rock has been lifted from my shoulders. And this was only one of the rocks i've been carrying this year.

Cinnamon has had issues related to tight tongue-tie since her birth but nothing too serious. But her weight gain is a bit behind from what it should be so i wanted to have the tongue tie checjed by a specialist to see if that might be the problem. She is still feeding every 1 to 2 hours during the day which is one indicator that she might not be getting enough milk. And i know it's not a supply issue. Anyhow, we got an appointment and the doctor was very lovely and considerate. However, she told that Cinnamon's tongue tie is tight but not so much that cutting it would necessarily help and considering the risks and recovery it's not something that she'd recommend unless bigger problems arise. And while I am slightly worried about the weight gain i am relieved about her opinion. Because this has been another thing stressing me since her birth, but now i have a specialist's opinion that i can trust.

I've been trying to focus more on eating enough (healthy) food and drinking enough. I know that many days i'm not getting enough water needed to maintain my milk supply. Now that i've been drinking more i immediately notice my boobs feeling more full and i even had to pump this morning. Maybe this could also help with Cinnamon's weight.

Things right now are better that in a while. My seasonal depression is gone and i've been having more energy to do special stuff with Almond. If only Cinnamon would sleep better. She eats 3-5 times a night and has more restless episodes. I'm thinking this might go on until the 4 month regressiong and then hopefully sleep will get better.

[case-study-of-parenting]

Almond is having health issues. She just finished antibiotics 2 weeks ago and now day care informed me that some of the symptoms are back... I am stressed and anxious about having to deal with this but also genuinely getting worried. She is anyway having some tests done next week and i'm stressed about how she's gonna behave. She can be very shy and scared in certain situations. I just wanna know what it is and get it taken care of. This thing has been going on and off in the background for a year now.

[case-study-of-parenting]

About our 3 year old

As a part of the mental prosessing for the new baby, I've started to notice how big my first-born actually is. She got a new front-facing car seat yesterday, she doesn't always ask for a hug when going to day care, she can dress independently (when she chooses to do so), se can slice hot dogs and bananas with a small knife, she is getting good at explaining her needs and wants, she is really waiting for the baby and talks about how she wants to take care of them. As happy as I am for the new baby, I'm also glad that Almond got to be our only baby as long as she did and get our undivided attention for almost 4 years. I truly believe that many of her skills are a direct result of us being able to give her so much time. (And I'm not saying this to criticize people who choose to have smaller age difference. That has its own benefits. )

Yesterday when already in bed Almond asked if dinosaurs exists. I told her no, so she asked if dinosaur costumes exist. After telling her yes, she told me that she wants to get a dinosaur costume for our baby as well as a pacifier and a car seat. She is so fun to chat with but why does it have to be always when it's time to sleep?

[case-study-of-parenting]

i love when a kid insists they are not at all tired yet falls asleep like 2 minutes later. hmm, i see. you were totally not tired